Jesus Healing the Leper, William Brassey Hole

Matthew 8:1-13 was the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday after Epiphany in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite.

The humble leper

We hear about the cleansing of the leper who with humble faith asked, but did not demand, that Jesus cure him.  God can do anything He wills and often He waits for us to acknowledge submission to His will before He grants our request. This abandonment to God’s good pleasure brings us close to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane who in agony submitted to the Father, ” Saying: Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done” (Lk. 22:42).

Because we are all sinners, our souls are leprous to one degree or another.  We all need to be made clean in the sacrament of Confession.  Our bodies, too, are often afflicted with disease and frailties.   The sicker we are, the more we need to throw ourselves on the merciful Christ with the words of that leper of long ago: “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”

Every physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual adversity we suffer can be met with these words. All are an opportunity to practice humble faith and place ourselves in the loving hands of Christ.  If we take time to think about it, our asking in this manner is an opportunity to experience peace of heart.

The humble centurion

Centurion Beseeching Jesus, William Brassey Hole

In the same gospel we hear the tale of the Roman centurion who is used to ordering others around and getting instant obedience.  But he, too, approaches Jesus with a humble heart full of compassion for his suffering servant and complete faith in Jesus’ power to heal, even at a distance.  From this encounter with the Lord we have the powerfully compelling words, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.”

From this passage in Matthew we draw the beautiful prayer we say together before receiving Holy Communion: “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

In the traditional Latin Mass we say this prayer three times.  Why?  Because in Hebrew expression there is no comparative or superlative as we have in English.  Thus, the triple repetition of something signifies the greatest emphasis possible in what is being said.  Since much of the Traditional Mass originates from the time of the apostles, we find this custom retained in the Latin expression of the Hebrew culture.  Thus, we, in praying this prayer three times at Mass, emphasize our great lowliness in the face of Jesus, our helplessness to cure ourselves, and our great faith in Jesus.  A second reason for the triple repetition is acknowledgement of the triune God.  Jesus is the second Person who cannot be separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit.

I write a lot from the viewpoint of suffering in this world.  Often we suffer because our souls need healing.  We need God’s help to root out anger, resentment, envy, covetousness, and many other evils from our hearts/souls.  Often, physical suffering can be eliminated or greatly ameliorated by the healing of the soul. This prayer of the centurion prepares us to receive the healing power of Christ in Holy Communion when we say it at Mass.

When we are not at Mass but on a bed of pain, we can repeat this prayer as an offering to God as we unite ourselves to the Passion of Christ and seek His aid in conforming ourselves to the will of God.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Awareness of God

Sabbath Moments is the weekly Saturday meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Visit her to read more Sabbath Moments.

Sabbath moments seem to evolve, for me, into gratitude for being able to recognize God’s work and blessings in daily life.  Among the ordinary whirling of our existence everything seems to stop and we are given the grace to see Him and somehow know Him a little better.  Sabbath moments are also times of joy, even in the midst of pain and adverse circumstances because He reveals Himself there, too.

Francie’s friends

My little piano students are quite taken with Francie, so after lessons I give them a handful of her dry food so they can reward her for obedience to their commands.  They go outside on sunny days to do the tricks I’ve taught them and it is such a joy to see them all having such good fun.  No doubt God loves to see His children playing together well, too, and honoring all the saints in heaven who are special to Him as Francie is to me.

Rule of St. Benedict

This week’s meditations on the Holy Rule by Father Placidus Kempf, O.S.B. (RIP) have been a fountain of Sabbath moments.  While many available meditations are set up to complete the reading of the Rule three times a year, the ones I use from St. Meinrad’s for oblates take a full year to finish reading once. Today from the Prologue we read:

Behold, in His loving Kindness the Lord points out to us the way to life.

Father Placidus’ first paragraph stopped me short:

Along our modern improved highways signs help the tourists to reach their destination.  Christ was way ahead of our modern, so-called progress.  Nineteen hundred years ago [this was written in 1978] He erected a huge sign to guide all men to their true destination — the Cross on Calvary.  The only road that leads to heaven passes over Mt. Calvary.  The only true sign to that happy home is the Cross.

People can become very twisted mentally and emotionally if they try to avoid the Cross or rebel against it.  It seems paradoxical to say that running towards the Cross and embracing it is a joy, yet in embracing the Cross we embrace God’s will for us and receive that yoke of Christ with the light burden that He carries with us.

I am now coming to understand that in making the sign of the Cross we not only signify that we belong to Christ and confess the triune Godhead, we are also saying that we accept following Him through suffering and death into perfect union with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Awareness of God

Welcome to this meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Please visit her to read others’ Sabbath Moments of the week.

This week we got some good and lengthy rain showers – just the right kind to soak the earth after a parching summer.  Rainy days are good days for resting in the Lord.

My experiment with late sowed zucchini failed.  I’m getting 4 inch veggies that just won’t grow longer or bigger.  We’ve had such weather extremes – very hot then dropping into the upper 40s at night – that I think, along with the angle of light changing, conditions aren’t good for normal growth.  However, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and nothing learned.  I’ll move the second planting up a couple of weeks next summer and see what happens.  And here’s hoping next summer won’t be so hot.  God is my partner in gardening and He always gives me a lot to think about as I try to coax the best out of the plants and apply the knowledge of those more experienced than I whom He puts in my path.

Hives are still a problem.  At times they drive me crazy and I have to deal with the trade-off of having more of them and itching worse with taking more prednisone than I want.  Right now I’m opting for less drug and more itch.  This is a test of perseverance, which happens to be the lesson from Divine Intimacy today.

Father Gabriel writes:

The angel, a pure spirit, is stable by nature; if he makes a resolution, he holds to it; but this is not the case with us.  We, being composed of spirit and matter, must suffer the consequences of the instability and fluctuations of the latter.

As stability is characteristic of spirit, so instability is characteristic of matter; hence it becomes so difficult for us to be perfectly constant in the good.  Although we have formed good resolutions in our mind, we always feel handicapped by the weakness of the sensible part of our nature which rebels against the weariness of sustained effort, and seeks to free itself from it, or at least to reduce it to a minimum. [No kidding.]

Our bodies are subject to fatigue; our minds are disturbed by emotions which are always fluctuating.  That which at one moment fills us with enthusiasm may, at the next, become distasteful and annoying to such a point that we think we can no longer endure it. This is our state while on earth and no one can escape it.

However, God calls us all to sanctity, and since sanctity requires a continual practice of virtue, He, who never asks the impossible, has provided a remedy for the instability of our nature by giving us the virtue of perseverance, the special object of which is the sustaining of our efforts. Though fickle by nature, we can, by the help of grace, become steadfast.

Physical and mental obstacles to bearing up under life’s difficulties seem, at times, to be monumental.  Sometimes it looks like a lot of things pile up on us all at once and all our good intentions fly out the window in a second.  It’s especially difficult to come to terms with chronic conditions that fluctuate in severity and are badly affected by other temporary difficulties.  Father Gabriel notes:

Sometimes just a momentary inattention, an unexpected happening, a little weariness or emotion, is enough to make us commit some fault that we had sincerely resolved to avoid at any cost, and here we have failed again!  This, however, is no reason for being discouraged or sad; rather it is a motive for humbling ourselves, for recognizing our weakness and begging more insistently for God’s help to rise at once and begin again.

Because our human nature is so unstable, our perseverance will usually consist in continually beginning again.  This is the perseverance to which we should all attain, because it depends on our good will, in the sense that God has infused this virtue in our soul, giving us at every moment sufficient grace to practice it.

It is not in our power to free ourselves from this instability of our nature, and therefore we cannot avoid every slackening in virtue, every negligence, weakness, or fault; but it is within our power to correct ourselves as soon as we perceive that we have failed. This is the kind of perseverance, that God demands of us, and when we practice it faithfully, and are always prompt in rising after each fall, He will crown our efforts by granting us the supreme grace of final perseverance.

So dealing with hives along with everything else is God’s way of strengthening the virtue of perseverance in me.  Just as an athlete doesn’t get to be a gold medal winner in the Olympics without daily intensive practice, so we will not achieve heaven without rigorous practice of perseverance.  I’m going for the eternal gold.  How about you?

Thanks to everyone who’s been praying for me.  I’m sure your prayers are helping.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Because I watch quite a bit of Asian art films and drama, I am struck by the fatalistic response to suffering that is an outgrowth of Buddhist beliefs and finds its expression in the dialogue of many of the works.  Life without Christ is so grim.  If I had to believe that the trials of this life were karma and that I was going to have to come back and deal with this world all over again I’m not sure how I would handle it. Fortunately we have a loving Father who sent His Son to redeem us from the misery of this world and to make sense out of suffering in the human condition.

St. Teresa of Avila, Peter Pawel Rubens

Father Gabriel writes in Divine Intimacy for today:

Christian patience is not the forced resignation of the fatalist or the philosopher who submits to suffering because he cannot escape it, nor is it the attitude of one who submits because he is not able to react through lack of strength and resources; it is the voluntary acceptance of suffering in view of God and eternal happiness, an acceptance sustained by the knowledge that suffering is absolutely necessary to purify us from sin, to atone for our faults, and to prepare us to meet God.  Christian patience incites us to accept suffering serenely, and gradually to esteem and love it, not because we see it as an end in life, but rather as a necessary means for attaining the end, which is love of God and union with Him. If Jesus willed to live a life of martyrdom and to die on the Cross in order to kindle the fire of charity in us and restore us to friendship with God, how can we expect to attain the plenitude of love and intimacy with God if we do not follow in His footsteps?

“Christ, therefore, having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought” cries St. Peter (1Pet. 2:1).  Let us embrace suffering then, with the same sentiments which Jesus had: to do the heavenly Father’s will to atone for sin and to give Him proof of our love.

Christian patience is not merely a passive attitude in the face of suffering; it is also active and voluntary.  The latter is the more important because it is this which makes suffering meritorious. A patient man is passive because he wills to be passive, because he uses his free will to submit to all the sufferings which he meets on his way, because he voluntarily bows his shoulders under the yoke of suffering, just as Jesus bowed His under the weight of the Cross, because He willed to do so, “quia ipse voluit” (Is. 53:7).

A Christian is not a forced Cyrenean, but a willing one, not in the sense that he goes spontaneously in search of suffering — this would not be feasible for all, and sometimes would be imprudent — but in the more modest sense whereby he accepts willingly all the suffering which he encounters on his way, recognizing in this the Cross offered him by God for his sanctification.

St. Teresa of Avila is known for this great quote, a few words of which you might see in a stained glass window of a Carmelite monastery like the one in my area:

O Jesus, what greater proof of Your love could You give me than to choose for me all that You willed for Yourself?  To die or to suffer: this is what I should desire (T.J. Way, 18; Life, 33- 11).

The Freudians would call us masochists.  We are, however, Christians with purpose sent to reach out to our fellow man and bring him the hope of the Cross.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

June 25, 1950 began a conventional war for communist dominance over South Korea, a war that has not ended and which can be taken up again at any time.  Invading the south over Road Number One, the north Koreans aided by China and Russia pushed all the way to Seoul twice before finally being driven back by United Nations and South Korean forces.

Dramafever, a website showcasing Korean and other Asian videos, describes Road Number One as:

A high-budget war epic commemorating the Korean War, Road No.1 spans several generations and sixty years, and commemorates the sixty years that have passed since the Korean War. It’s based around the historical “Route 1″, a national highway that served as the main passageway between North and South Korea during the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.

The story is one of friendship, love, and sacrifice on the human level amid the destruction of war.  I highly recommend this series for all the artistic reasons one can recommend such a work – script, lighting, acting, composition, historical authenticity, etc. – but also as a way to see and hear the true meaning and effects of communism on society. My husband, who served in Korea in 1959 – 1961, was very impressed with the accurate portrayal of conditions at the 38^th parallel and the depiction of the war.  Certainly students studying American involvement in the Korean War could get a good “feel” for what the war was like, but I don’t recommend this series for young children.

At the heart of Road Number One is the battle between communism and the free world.  I think of Marxism/communism as a religion designed to create a small elite class of wealthy and powerful people who grind everyone else under their boot heels. The elite with their mad desire for forcing everyone to their way of thinking substitute government (themselves) for God.  We are well on our way to this in America as we turn out PC students from our public schools and universities who have been thoroughly brainwashed into believing that the government owes them whatever.  The sheer number of Marxists surfacing in today’s politics ought to freeze our blood because it is as anti life and anti hope as you can get.

In episode seven, the Korean scriptwriters gave an outstanding set of lines to a nurse serving on the side of North Korea at the front, illustrating the end result of Marxist atheism. She tells a female volunteer doctor who is desperately trying to save some civilians caught in the fighting:

A military hospital is not a free clinic.  We don’t have time to waste saving useless people.  This is a place where one is responsible for his own usefulness to continue living.

Last week when Justice Joanne Veit let Katrina Effert off with only probation for strangling and throwing her newborn baby over the fence into a neighbor’s yard, I saw the only logical outcome of Marxist thinking.  Life is cheap and whoever is mightier wins.  The weak and suffering?  Too bad.  Deny them succor and let them die or kill them outright.  No one is my neighbor.  Only I am important.

Unless we selflessly live Christianity in the face of accelerating communism in our country, we as a nation will fall. Contrast the nurse’s words with Pope John Paul II’s words in Salvifici Dolores #29:

Following the parable of the Gospel [Good Samaritan], we could say that suffering, which is present under so many different forms in our human world, is also present in order to unleash love in the human person, that unselfish gift of one’s “I” on behalf of other people, especially those who suffer. The world of human suffering unceasingly calls for, so to speak, another world: the world of human love; and in a certain sense man owes to suffering that unselfish love which stirs in his heart and actions. The person who is a “neighbor” cannot indifferently pass by the suffering of another: this in the name of fundamental human solidarity, still more in the name of love of neighbor.

Marxism/communism leads to dehumanization, isolation and death; Christianity to affirmation of human dignity, love of neighbor and life. In addition to an excellent portrayal of the Korean War, Road Number One vividly shows us where we are going – straight to the gates of hell – if we Christians do not grow stronger in articulating the Gospel of Life and living it 24/7.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

St. Dominic Adoring the Crucifixion, 1440s, Fra Angelico (b. ca. 1400, Vicchio nell Mugello, d. 1455, Roma), Fresco, Convento di San Marco, Florence

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the effective date for implementation of Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, in 2007.  Thanks again, Holy Father, for clarifying that all Catholics who wish to worship according to the 1962 liturgical books have a right to do so and that bishops must facilitate this wherever access difficulties arise.

Today’s meditation in Divine Intimacy was on gratitude.  Father Gabriel writes:

This is our position in regard to God: we have nothing of our own; all that we are and have comes from Him, and in return for His infinite generosity, we can do nothing but use His gifts to express our gratitude to Him.  “In all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all” (Thes. 5:18).

Yow.  I needed this reminder.  For the past two weeks I’ve been suffering from awful hives.  Tuesday morning I cancelled my workout at the therapy pool because I woke up around 5:30 with my head, shoulder, arm and legs itching like crazy.  These are not small bumps.  They start small, swell, and expand to cover numerous square inches of skin, even joining one another, until the heat and itch is just awful.  They were not only on my scalp, they were around the edges of my face and on my ears.  I could feel the little devils wanting to spread all over my face and other body parts.  Last week my lower lip swelled like a wiener.  When they get that big, that’s when they become painful, too.

Every 4-5 years these crop up and continue for weeks, necessitating the use of prednisone and anti-histamines along with a sharp change in diet.   No doctor has been able to explain the cause except that they think it is caused by allergies and probably I’m being exposed to too many irritating substances in the air, food, and who knows what all other sources.  So I am not only not normally normal in what I can do, eat and drink, when these strike what has become normal has to be adjusted even further.

hives (urticaria)

St. Paul tells me I must be grateful for this scourge which will last for an unknown amount of time and which can barely be controlled.  Actually, I am grateful.

Thank God for the extra time to read, meditate, and pray since it’s hard to do some of the things I’d like to do.  Thank God for the medicines and herbs that help.  Thank God for another lesson in dependency on Him and self-discipline. Thank God for the chance to suffer in union with His Son on the Cross.  Thank God for a reminder that self-pity is useless and that He’s relieved me before and will do so again when He’s ready.  Thank God for giving me the faith to know that these hives are a gift from Him to make me a better person, and trust that the experience will bring forth good fruit.  After all, these attacks are nothing compared to what Jesus suffered for us.

So now I offer this to Him with a smile even though I don’t feel like rejoicing.  But then, faith, hope, and charity are not about feeling but about our free will conforming ourselves to the will of God.  May this make up for all the times I wasn’t grateful for His gifts, and for those who, like me, forget to be grateful.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to the weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. This habit of reflecting on moments touched by God is a great leveler of the highs and lows we all go through.  Finding God present with us, whether we go to Him or He comes to us, is a reason for thanksgiving – a wonderful motivation for participating in the great thanksgiving of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

This is my only blog post this week.  A dear friend is going through the savage emotional turmoil of separating from her husband of many years. Devout Catholics don’t do this lightly and she is suffering greatly.  I’ve been devoting quite a bit of time over the past two weeks to listening and helping her sort through difficult issues so I haven’t been trying to blog. In my mind’s eye we are standing at the foot of the Cross offering these trials to Jesus.  He is the only one who can lighten her load. In my life I’ve seen that going through times like these is an opportunity to surrender to God, to let Him take the lead, to submit to His claim on us. When we step out into what appears to be darkness and uncertainty putting one foot in front of the other, we find His light and the generous blessings He is waiting to give us. Suffering can be a Sabbath Moment even though it doesn’t feel good.

Psalm 107

This morning’s Office of Prime contains Psalm 107, an expression of trust in God in the time of battle.  These verses stood out for me today:

Give us aid against the foe, for worthless is the help of men.

Under God we shall do valiantly; it is He who will tread down our foes.

I love these words because they acknowledge God as all powerful and ourselves in need of His help to overcome our foes: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Men cannot help us.  Only the grace of God can do this. Surrendering to Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us enables us to overcome these three valiantly, that is, intrepidly.  We need have no fear, only confidence.  We can fight off any threat to our spiritual well-being and gain control over our unruly selfishness by simply asking God for aid and accepting it, then using it. Although we are co-operating, “it is He who will tread down our foes.”

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Visit her to read about other bloggers’ awareness of the presence of God in their lives.

This week, for the fourth time since January, I came down with a sinus infection/cold/bronchitis combination.  This never happens.  At most I get one cold a year.  After each bout it takes weeks to recover.

Usually I accept set backs good naturedly, but this week I got pouty with the Lord.  After all, I had a list of blog posts I wanted to write and other plans of things I wanted to get done.    Instead, I spent days and nights coughing my bronchial tubes out while with every hack my head felt like exploding.  This was one nasty bug.

About the third day into this I was really frustrated.  After all, I’m taking all kinds of stuff to balance my body and resist disease and still it seems that half the time I’m sick.  This time around my misery index blew through the ceiling and emotionally I wanted to do a two-year-old whiney foot-stamping rant. There ensued an internal battle between feelings, reason, and will.

Logic says whether I accept suffering gracefully or not, the fact of being sick wasn’t going to change.  My feelings fought the logic and I wanted to give in and get crabby and resentful with God.  In fact, I did give in for a few moments.

The third player, will, was determined not to be moved.  Years ago when my health started to deteriorate I made a permanent intention to offer up all my pain and suffering for the souls in purgatory, the conversion of sinners, and other intentions.  Was I going to revoke this because I was put out?  Hah! Whose loss would that be?

Will won out with the help of reason and I accepted the situation with thanks and faith, but it took an hour or so to move through the battle.  It was like two top notch prize fighters pounding away at each other in the ring with reason as the referee.  It felt like a 20 round match.  My Sabbath Moments came when I realized why I was angry.

First, the plans I had for the week were my plans, not His. His plans are the only ones that count and if I was going to be obedient rather than rebellious, pleasing rather than selfish, I needed to let go of what I wanted and obviously couldn’t have in favor of doing what He wanted.

Second, my feelings were normal but what God looks at is the will. My will said “yes” to God while my feelings raged against Him. Yes, this week I felt sick and tired of being sick and tired, but there’s no point in dwelling on that.  I think sometimes God allows us to go through these battles to give our will a thorough work out.  It’s always practice for something bigger.

Third, redirecting my attention to other things more enjoyable helped me get over the bad feelings. Later, reason helped me find learning out of the darkness of spirit.  And God doesn’t go away just because we’re mad at Him.  I was aware He was with me in the struggle.  What looked bad turned to good with His help.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read other bloggers’ times when they “rested in the Lord” or found Him in their daily living.

This week I have once again taken up Divine Intimacy, that great meditation book by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. In Friday’s first meditation he links the Cross with Pentecost by speaking about the Cross and the work of the Holy Spirit in us. His words remind me to stop fighting the yoke Christ has placed on me and get with God’s program for becoming a saint.  I have spent some Sabbath Moments considering the following:

In order to attain sanctity, it is evident that we need the Cross.  To accept God’s will always and in every circumstance implies the renouncement of one’s own will; it is impossible to be conformed to Jesus in everything, “who in this life had no other pleasure, nor desired any, than to do the will of His Father” (St. John of the Cross, Ascent to Mount Carmel I, 13, 4) without renouncing one’s own selfish pleasures.  And all this means: detachment, crosses, sacrifice, self-denial. It means setting out steadfastly on the way indicated by Jesus Himself: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt. 16:24).

This is the path which the Holy Spirit urges and invites us to follow.  Whenever we find ourselves looking for things that are easier, more commodious, or more honorable; whenever we notice we are satisfying our self-love, our pride, or see that we are attached to our own will, let us remind ourselves that all this is far removed from the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and, what is worse, it is an obstacle to His action in us.

The longer we concentrate on the narrow road to that narrow gate, the more we realize we need detachment from the things of this world and the more we will welcome the scrubbing of the Holy Spirit as he polishes our souls. However, just as it’s hard for a mother to scrub the dirty face of her wiggling, struggling child, so we can make our sanctification a lot harder on ourselves by kicking, bucking, and trying to throw off the yoke.  Who wants physical, mental, or emotional pain, broken relationships, financial hardships, and the many losses we face?  How do we bear them?

Here Father Gabriel continues:

By courageously practicing self-denial, we begin the way of conformity to Jesus Crucified; but here, too, our initiatives are disproportionate to the end to be attained; the acts of mortification and self-denial which we make are wholly insufficient to strip us of the old man and clothe us with Christ, with Christ Crucified.

That is why the Holy Spirit, after setting us on the road of the Cross by His inspirations – which tend to make us accept, for the love of God, all that is hard and painful to nature – takes it upon Himself to complete our purification.  He does this by sending us trials, both exterior and interior….

Suffering is necessary for our purification and flowing from this, our participation in the redemptive work of Jesus. The farther we advance along the road of the Cross, the more we shall be sanctified and the more fruitful the apostolate we shall exercise in the Church….

We must not seek the Cross in extraordinary sufferings, seldom, if ever, encountered; we must look for it in the duties, the life, the difficulties, and the sacrifices of each day and each moment. Here we shall find unfathomable treasures, recognizing them by the light of faith, by the aid of the Holy Spirit who urges us to embrace these daily crosses, not merely to endure them — to accept them and offer them willingly, saying with all our heart: “Yes, I want this, even though it seems to crush me!”

We can never remind ourselves often enough of the truth of these words.  They are what suffering with joy is all about.  Lord, I have a long way to go to say “Yes, I want this, even though it seems to crush me!”  Come Holy Spirit and give me wisdom, understanding, knowledge, fortitude, piety, counsel and fear of the Lord.  Let me have Pentecost in my soul every minute of every day.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

We might find it strange that in Paschal time we would have several days of penance, but the Church has good reason for it.  We are approaching commemorating the final hours of Jesus walking this earth.  For those of us who have a hard time saying “goodbye”, we understand the grief the Apostles, disciples and Mary must have experienced.  So although we are in a time of rejoicing, we are also in a time of sorrow immediately preceding the Ascension.

St. Mamertus, engraving

The History of Rogation Days

Rogation Days (from Latin rogare, to beseech) are a wonderful example of what Vatican Council II meant when in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium) it spoke of “organic growth.”  We owe these days to the churches of southern Gaul, specifically the church at Vienne.  This tradition dates back to the 400s under the great bishop St. Mamertus.

Just after the Burgundians had conquered the area of Vienne in the mid 400s, all sorts of calamities began to occur, not unlike today with earthquakes, floods, great winds, hail, sicknesses, starvation, etc. Crops were destroyed and many died.

The good bishop, unbeknownst to himself, began a practice in this time of trouble which has come to form a part of the sacred liturgy of the universal Church and which is Biblically based.  Remember that whenever the Israelites were suffering greatly, a good dose of penance and sacrifices accompanied by the psalms would bring them relief.

St. Mamertus prescribed three days of public expiation and supplication to God in which the faithful were to devote themselves to penance, walking in procession chanting appropriate psalms, and fasting.  The three days preceding the Ascension were chosen. Masters were required to dispense servants from work so that all could assist at the long functions that filled most of the three days.  In his time the procession lasted six hours as the people went from church to church throughout the countryside.  Before beginning, the people received ashes as on Ash Wednesday and were sprinkled with holy water.  Everyone walked barefoot, led by a cross of the principal church in charge of the observance.

A detail recorded by a monk of St. Gall’s tells us that Charlemagne would join the procession barefoot and walk from his palace to the stational church.  St. Elizabeth of Hungary did the same, for in 816 Pope Leo III brought this practice to Rome and from there it spread everywhere.  St. Charles Borromeo in the 1500s observed Rogation Days in his see of Milan, visiting over ten churches every day in procession.

Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B. wrote in the 1800s in his great The Liturgical Year series:

If, then, we would have a correct idea of the Rogation days, we must consider them as Rome does – that is, as a holy institution which, without interrupting our paschal joy, tempers it. The purple vestments used during the procession and Mass do not signify that our Jesus has fled from us, but that the time for His departure is approaching. By prescribing abstinence for these three days, the Church would express how much she will feel the loss of her Spouse, who is so soon to be taken from her.

Abstinence is no longer an obligation for Rogation days, nor are they holy days of obligation. Ashes and sprinkling the faithful with holy water is not part of the ritual anymore.  Also, the diocesan Bishop may transfer these days to three other consecutive days which are more accommodating to local custom and need.

Purposes of Rogation Days

The Church observes the Rogation Days for two reasons:

1. To, in Biblical terms, appease the anger of God and avert the chastisements which the sins of the world justly deserve, and
2. To draw down the Divine blessing on the fruits of the earth.

Today the faithful chant the litany of the Saints during the procession as well as Psalm 69 (Deus in adjutorium meum intende or O God, come to my assistance).  When the procession is over, the Mass of Rogation is offered.

How to keep the Rogation Days if you can’t observe them at your parish

In all the 18 years of living in our diocese, never once have I heard “Rogation Days” mentioned even though we are a dominantly rural diocese.  Never once have I seen them observed and I am well informed of what is going on regarding the sacred liturgy here.  I suspect the same is true for others here and there.  But you can be sure they are observed in the 1962 liturgy and in various other dioceses around the world.

To join the universal Church in these celebrations you can pray the complete Litany of the Saints and Psalm 69 all three days. Simple, isn’t it?

Why we need to keep the Rogation Days

Let’s take a look at 2010 and 2011:

• Major earthquake and destruction in Haiti
• Major Gulf oil spill and loss of life
• Civil war and rebellion everywhere in the Middle East
• The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami
• Terrible flooding up and down the Mississippi this spring
• Tornadoes throughout the South, the Midwest and eastern parts of the USA
• Slaughter of Christians everywhere in the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan, India, etc.
• Food shortages and extremely high food prices around the world
• Riots spreading across Europe and Greece falling apart
• Crop failures of all kinds the world over
  

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things that should be on the list.  Can anyone seriously say that we don’t need observance of the Rogation Days?  Are we not enduring great chastisements now? Do we not have troubles with planting and harvests the world over now because of many different calamities?

The Church gives us a great opportunity for instruction in the Catholic faith and spirituality with the observance of Rogation Days. Everywhere we have Catholic schools we have an opportunity to celebrate these days with the parish children in procession even if parents have to be at work.  Pastors can encourage parishioners to come for the sacred liturgy if they can and explain the meaning and purpose of these days to all.

As in so many instances, our sacred liturgy offers us the chance to re-orient ourselves to God – to reinforce a right relationship with Him. The world needs these days observed with a humble and contrite heart.  Remember that God told Abraham if he could find only ten just men, He would spare Sodom.  Can we not be among those ten just men today, calling God’s mercy on this sickened world?

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Last night Missouri was hit by the worst tornado in its recorded history.  A funnel ¾ of a mile wide and six miles long tore through Joplin, ripping the roof off St. John’s hospital, blowing out its windows, and piling up mashed cars three deep.  A 300 lb. man was sucked out a hospital window.  X-rays were found in backyards of Springfield, Bolivar and Willard, all towns about an hour or so away from the scene. Large trees were twisted and shredded and steel beams took the shape of pretzels.  At least 90 people have died in this storm and entire neighborhoods destroyed.  Rangeline, the main drag, is unrecognizable.

St. Michael the Archangel Defeats Satan

We live in southwest Missouri in a house of less than 800 square feet.  We have no place to go on our property should we encounter such a storm.  All we can do is pray for God’s protection in these times.  Fortunately, the system that devastated so much of this area skirted the small town we live in, but I assure you I was asking God to send plenty of angels to guard us.  And not those effeminate looking ones depicted everywhere.  We needed St. Michael’s mighty muscle and we got it.

Perhaps most remarkable last evening was something that happened between the two major storms that passed through.  I looked up to see a strange pale yellow orange light through the window.  It was as if someone had put a colored filter in front of a camera lens.  Roger and I went outside to discover that the entire world was bathed in that light.  The sky from the north and west was full of this soft color and it affected everything it touched.  I’ve only seen this phenomenon a couple of other times and it’s always been evening storm related.  Amid the destruction great beauty shone.

Today I’ve tried to reach friends that live just a few miles south of Joplin but the phone calls won’t go through.  Many cell towers are down and land lines have been affected.  I will keep trying.

With last evening’s events fresh in my mind, I was struck by today’s Lauds psalm 28:7-9  where we pray:

The voice of the Lord strikes fiery flames; the voice of the Lord shakes the desert, the Lord shakes the wilderness of Cades.  The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests, and in his temple all say “Glory!”

God did plenty of that yesterday.  When will all men glorify Him?

The next reading was 1 Chron. 29:10-13:

Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of Israel, our father from eternity to eternity.  Thine, O Lord, is magnificence, and power, and glory, and victory: and to Thee is praise.  For all that is in heaven and in earth is Thine.  Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art above all princes.

Thine are riches, and Thine is glory: Thou hast dominion over all. In Thy hand is power and might: in Thy hand greatmess, and the empire of all things.

Now therefore, our God, we give thanks to Thee: and we praise Thy glorious name.

We often forget that everything belongs to God.  Even things we make, plant, or raise, because none of it can be done without His power.  Our conceit seems to know no end in today’s world.

I believe that God is visiting chastisements like these upon all the earth to wake us up.  Or rather, His permissive will is holding back very little of what He has set in motion because, as the conversation went between God and Abraham over Sodom, we have not enough just men among us. I wrote about God’s permissive will in Lent, the “Why?” of Suffering, and the Japanese Tragedy.

The state of the world today is why I personally am often praying Bible verses like the ones here and in my Three Favorite Scripture Verses, along with the ending of the Divine Mercy chaplet.  I believe God is not calling just me, but as many as will do so, to keep Him first and foremost in thought, word, and deed, praising Him.  This is the right relationship we must see restored for the good of man.

Remember the many people who started attending church after 9/11?  A lot of them quit after awhile.  Meanwhile, the good  along with the bad suffer, and we know that we do not know the day or the hour of our passing so we must always be ready.

Please pray for those who died or were injured in last night’s storm, and for consolation for their families.  May conversions result from this tragedy. Rescue efforts continue in Joplin where 50% of the area is ruined.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

My Lent this year is more focused that ever because of the disaster in Japan.  The lessons of detachment from things, from life, from my own will are gripping.  The responsibility to pray for the conversion of sinners looms before me as never before.  Something about tens of thousands of people dying in minutes is overwhelming.  I ask myself, how many might not have made it to heaven because I did not sacrifice and pray enough?

Weeping Woman of Natori, Reuters/Asahi Shimbun

In a way, this photo is a metaphor for the soul, grief-stricken in its emptiness, and overcome with sin as Natori is weighed down with jumbled rubble. Is this what our sinful souls look like to God?

The people of Japan will clear the leavings of the tsunami.  The chaos will subside.  Will we clear our souls of sin through the mercy of Confession?  Will we detach ourselves from the things of this earth, using them only as necessary on our journey to heaven? These are the lessons this picture brings to mind.

I want to wipe away the woman’s tears, but I can’t.  Only God can do that through other people who follow the Beatitudes and the Commandments and who will personally touch her.

We ask, if He loves us, why does He allow such tragedies?  Yet the greatest tragedy of all is that the majority of Japanese people are not Christian. They do not know Jesus.  They do not know God.  They do not know they are loved as a priceless treasure with a home in heaven just for them.

This natural disaster occurred as a natural event in a fallen world.  God’s permissive will does not interfere with the creation He set in motion and that creation has been affected by the sin of Adam. Yet God in His goodness always uses the evil that befalls us for our good.  What looks like a curse is really a blessing – a way that God says, “Look at Me.  See my love for you.  Pay attention.  I want you with Me forever.  The things of this world are as nothing before Me.  But you are my beloved children and I died for you.  In earthly terms, your value is incalculable.”

We may not understand it at the time we are enduring grave suffering.  Maybe we will never see the why of an event in this life, but we will see and understand all in the next. God can do only good.  Doing evil is not part of His nature. It is supernatural Faith from Baptism that tells us in our hearts that God allows tragedy to bring us to Himself.

Many Christians are coming to the aid of the Japanese people.  They are like Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, seeing Christ in the suffering survivors and bringing the love of Christ to them.  Many more of us who can do nothing materially are praying for the conversion of Japan.  A life-changing event like the tsunami is a door to Baptism, but only grace can bring someone through it.

God alone knows the multitude of prayers that have been said for them that would not otherwise have been said.  The aftermath of the quake and tsunami remind us once again that we are all members of the human family and we are all creatures of God, loved by Him with an unimaginable strength.  Now, I must be about making this Lent really count for the salvation of my own soul and that of my brothers and sisters everywhere in the world.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to another Sabbath Moments brought to you by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Sabbath Moments are times we rest with God, or recognize Him in the wholly ordinary.  Visit Colleen to read other bloggers’ Sabbath Moments.

This week I spent time with the Lord resting in bed.  My fibromyalgia pain and fatigue seem to be relentless lately, so I take up my rosary or meditate on a Bible story.

My uncle passed away this week.  Please pray for the repose of his soul.  His death was on my mind this morning as I thought about why we are sad when someone we love passes away.

We are so anchored to this world by our bodies and the physical presence of others, that when someone is no longer with us, we miss their “being there”.  Even when we know they are happy to be moving on to their final reward and are free from the suffering of this world, we seem to need to hang on to them somehow. The emptiness we feel seems like it can never be filled.

It is consoling to know that if we are faithful to our Baptismal vows we will see one another again in a perfect way.  With Jesus as the center of our lives we can pick ourselves up and move along toward Him while looking forward to our eventual reunion with loved ones in heaven.

As I’ve dealt with the passing of both parents and now a treasured uncle in the past year and a half, I find myself ever more grateful for the Holy Eucharist.  Christ is always with us and will never leave us.  His physical presence is something we will never lose.  Our departed are with Him and we are with Him.  He is the link and center of all that has been, is, and ever will be.  So for my uncle,

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon him.  May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.  Amen.

Awareness of God

Today we join Colleen at Thoughts on Grace to share quiet moments we had with the Lord, or those when we experienced Him in the ordinary.

1.  The snow comes down every few days and the temperature has been 0° or slightly higher until yesterday when the sun came out and we got a little warmer.  For the past two weeks I’ve skipped working out because my fibromyalgia reacts badly to the chill. Instead, on the days I would have roused myself to go to the therapy pool, I stayed under the warm covers and meditated on matters of Faith and the Virgin Mary.

2.  My fibro pain has gone higher with the lack of exercise and yesterday while I was grocery shopping and trying to get prescriptions filled at the pharmacy I could barely contain my irritation. Doctor’s office said I didn’t have to come in, they’d call the prescription in.  OK, so far so good.

Got to the pharmacy.  Somebody with a bunch of kids had a problem not having their insurance in order.  Stand in line and wait for 20 minutes while they argue it out with the clerk.

Finally it’s my turn.  Only two out of three prescriptions were there.  Called the doctor’s office.  “Well you have to come in or we can’t give it to you.” But just two days ago they said I didn’t need to come in and that they would phone the prescriptions in.  They also said that if the doc wanted to see me, they’d call. I got no call.  Body-wide pain levels rising.

Now I have to drag my sorry behind from Walmart to home where I wait a couple of hours and then drag it to the doctor’s office where I get to take 15 minutes to fill out an electronic patient form with questions they already have answered in their system, and then wait and wait and wait. I was gritting my teeth and telling myself to hold on – choking back my feelings of wanting to give somebody a piece of my mind for having inconvenienced me.

Pain levels were accelerating while I’m trying to get a grip on myself.  The later in the day the higher the pain levels anyway. Plus, the prescription I needed was for my sleep meds.  Without them I can’t turn my brain off to sleep.  It’s one of the nasty facets of fibro I’ve tried to overcome without success. 

So add anxiety to irritation and you have one very growly lady, because I know from the outset I have to drag myself back to Walmart and wait and wait and wait all over again while my whole body becomes one huge mass of flame. Then when I finally get home I have to fix dinner.  Throw a little accelerant on the fire here.

Trying to get myself under control, I had taken the book “Kindness” by Father Lovasik to the doctor’s office with me to read while waiting.  When I got to the section, “Strive to suffer graciously” it was as if the good priest had sat me down and held up a mirror to my face.  He writes:

One of the most attractive features of holiness is to combine suffering with gentleness. [OK, tiger lady, get a grip.] This demands that suffering be almost wholly influenced by supernatural grace…. [Yep, I sure need that grace right about now before I turn into a gargoyle.]

Gargoyle

Kind suffering will make you look at what others feel rather than at what you have to bear. You will see your own crosses on other people’s shoulders, and consequently you will be all the more kind to them.  The saints were silent in suffering, because they knew that what they suffered was itself a suffering to those who loved them. [Yes, just because I'm in a lot of pain and inconvenienced to the nth degree here, why should I inflict my bad mood on everyone around me?  This is my problem, not theirs.  It is unjust to inflict it on them.  Smile and be nice.]

Make an effort to hide your pains and sorrows.  But, while you do so, let them also urge you to be kind and cheerful to those around you. The very darkness within you should create a sunshine around you.  In this way, the spirit of Jesus will take possession of your soul. [If there's anything I need at the moment, it's the spirit of Jesus.  OK, time to calm down and let all this anger go.  You can't change anything anyway.  Just hang in there.  You can get through it.  In the eternal scheme of things this is nothing.]

And so, the super grouch went back to Walmart smiling at the good people there, got her meds, went home, fixed dinner still smiling, and thanked God for the pain meds and sleep meds that helped her get ready for a new day. And hubby was also very happy that his real wife came home and not some monster out of the black lagoon. A little 100 proof spiced rum topped the day off just fine.

If it hadn’t been for Father Lovasik’s book, I would have left a lot of unhappy people in the wake of my frustration, so I consider a lot of yesterday a Sabbath Moment.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

St. John of Matha, Laurent de La Hire (1606-1656, Paris), oil on canvas and wood, Musée du Louvre, Paris

Today’s 1962 calendar celebrates the feast of St. John of Matha (1160-1213).  Pope Innocent III approved his founding of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity (the Trinitarians) in 1198 for the purpose of ransoming captives from the Muslims. His community spread throughout France, Italy, England, Spain, and into north Africa where they were able to free many slaves.  The ones well enough to be sent home went, but the Trinitarians were allowed to remain in north Africa to care for the ones too old or ill to go home.

Today’s feast is a reminder that slavery is far from over. Not only is slave labor practiced in the Sudan, Niger, Somalia, Chad, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Indonesia to name a few states, sex slavery is rampant in those countries as well as Cambodia, Thailand, middle Europe, Africa and the Middle East to name a few more.

One of the most concerning developments in the saga of human trafficking is the heavy trans-Atlantic sex trade and the growth of sex slave hubs such as Houston, Texas where  United States politics facilitates transporting illegal immigrants by illegal immigrants for the sole purpose of prostituting girls as young as 11 or 12. Murder of these women is not uncommon if they are a threat to discovery. Our country, therefore, belongs on the list of countries facilitating human trafficking.

The scams worked on the slaves to get them here and keep them hidden are as varied as the evil human heart can devise.  If the full numbers were to be discovered, every decent person would fall to his knees in a collective wail of anguish on the spot.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

Our time is St. John of Matha’s time to the nth degree. If ever we needed the intercession of a saint opposed to slavery it is now, and he is one we can turn to.  He is a great example of living a corporal work of mercy which, unfortunately, was left out of the Catechism of the Catholic Church – #2447.  (Every Catholic family should have a copy of this in the home for study and reference.)  But just because it isn’t there doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply.  In fact, it applies now more than ever.

You can find the seven corporal works of mercy listed in the Baltimore Catechism and the Catholic Encyclopedia.  These are the ones I memorized in second grade, thanks to those good nuns who made sure we kids knew Church teaching.

They are to:

1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty,
3. Clothe the naked,
4. Ransom the captive
5. Harbor the harborless (shelter the homeless)
6. Visit the sick
7. Bury the dead

We cannot buy people out of sex or hard labor slavery today. The people enslaving others keep it hidden as much as possible because it is so lucrative – really dirty money but they get to live very high.  Sometimes their governments protect the slavers.  Pimps are slavers, too, holding their slaves captive by hooking them on drugs and beating them.

Government policies not to negotiate with terrorists negates buying people out of captivity, though private businesses and families have ransomed Somali pirate captives in recent years.  So how can we ransom the captives today?

Ransoming captives is not a thing of the past.

The answer is by fasting and praying, assisting law enforcement in discovering traffickers, pressuring governments to stop human trafficking, speaking out against it wherever we can, sealing our borders and obeying our immigration laws, and helping in rescue efforts if we are able.  We might submit a Mass stipend for the Holy Sacrifice to be offered for an end to human trafficking. Most of us can at least do the fasting and praying part if God has not called us to other ways of combating this dehumanizing crime.

The other slavery we need to ransom others from is slavery to sin. We are all captives of sin unless we struggle daily against the wiles of the devil.  Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, attendance at Mass whenever we can, offering up our pain and suffering for the salvation of souls, frequent Confession, daily prayer – all of these actions are spiritual almsgiving and a work of mercy.

St. John of Matha, pray for us and for all of God’s children who are enslaved physically or spiritually.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)